“I was the happiest girl in the world... Here I was playing the chick I always
wanted to be -- and I didn’t even have to get surgery.” Natasha Lyonne on
getting fake breasts for her role in Slums of Beverly Hills

New York-born actress Natasha Lyonne first achieved the notice of moviegoers for
her role in the 1986 Heartburn, and garnered more attention ten years later with
her deadpan narration, as the sensible teenaged daughter in Woody Allen’s
Everyone Says I Love You. The beautiful performer delivered a fine starring role
in Tamara Jenkins’ Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), for which she earned a Chicago
Film Critics Association nomination. The young starlet is also known for playing
roles in such films as But I’m a Cheerleader (1999), American Pie (1999) and its
sequel American Pie 2 (2001), Kate & Leopold (2001), Scary Movie 2 (2001), Party
Monster (2003), Blade: Trinity (2004) and the animated Robots (2005).

Off screen, the 5’ 3½’’ actress made headlines after her arrest in 2001 by Miami
Beach police on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol, careless
driving and leaving the scene of an accident. Arrested at about 1:45 am, she was
released after posting a bond during the day. Upon her arrest, Lyonne was quoted
as saying, “I’m a movie star. Can I talk to my entertainment lawyer?”

Three years later, Lyonne once again gained notoriety when she was arrested at
her New York City residence after arguing with a
neighbor and threatening to sexually molest a dog. In August 2005, the movie
star was then found in intensive care at a hospital in New York with hepatitis
C, a heart infection and a collapsed lung. The same month, her father took a
legal action against the Beth Israel Hospital after a member of staff leaked
information about Lyonne’s critical condition.

As for her love life, Lyonne, who was featured in Eminem music video “Without
Me,” has been involved with her Detroit Rock City co-star, Edward Furlong
(together 1998-2000), and actor Adam Goldberg.

Frustrated Girl

Childhood and Family:

In New York, New York, Natasha Bianca Braunstein, who would later be popular as
Natasha Lyonne, was born on April 4, 1979, to a conservative Jewish family. Her
father is Aaron Braunstein, a former boxing promoter and racecar driver, and her
mother is Yvette Lyonne, a product licensing consultant and ex-ballerina. Raised
primarily in New York City and Long Island, Natasha spent a three-year in Israel
(1987-1990) and moved back to New York after the divorce of her parents. After
returning, she lived in a one-room apartment, with her mother and her older
brother Adam (born in 1972).

Disappointed by her parents’ separation, Natasha became a rebellious girl. She
started to get into troubles and hate her school life. In order to be alone and
away from peers, who frequently made fun of her lower socioeconomic status, she
skipped classes. This led her to spend time in several different schools. After
attending a private Jewish school at Manhattan’s Yeshiva high school, she was
moved to Miami and transferred to a public high school. However, it did not
work. 16-year-old Natasha then left her mom in Miami and moved back to New York
City on her own. Despite the frustration, Natasha found acting as her salvation.
She later earned a place at the New York University, but put her studies on the
backburner to pursue a career in acting.

“I’d love to go to school, but every time I try I get a movie. That’s actually
how I get work: I enroll. That’s like my good luck charm.” Natasha Lyonne

Slums of Beverly Hills

Career:

Natasha Lyonne had her first film exposure as a little girl when she landed an
uncredited part as Meryl Streep’s niece in Heartburn (1986). The same year, she
made her debut in series TV with the recurring role of ‘Little Opal’ in the
outrageously popular children’s show “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” a role she had until
1987. She continued to act and appeared as an Arab girl in the movie A Man
Called Sarge (1990) when she was in Israel. Returning to the USA, Lyonne took on
a supporting part opposite Walter Matthau, Mason Gamble, Christopher Lloyd and
Lea Thompson as Polly in the comedy/family film Dennis the Menace (1993). During
high school years, Lyonne also participated in many school plays, including one
the Yeshiva’s production of “The Magic Garden.”

After ten years in the cinematic industry, Lyonne finally got a breakthrough
role when Woody Allen cast her in the supporting role of the even-tempered teen
daughter D.J. Berlin in his musical Everyone Says I Love You (1996), starring
Edward Norton and Drew Barrymore. Delivering a deadpan performance, the actress
earned some recognition.

Postponing enrollment at New York University in favor for acting, the rising
star then portrayed the daughter of Richard Dreyfuss in the uneven comedy
Krippendorf’s Tribe (1998) and gave one of her best performances to date,
starring as a teenager dealing with the beginning of puberty and her
dysfunctional family’s regular movement from apartment to apartment in Slums of
Beverly Hills (1998), directed by Tamara Jenkins. The role handed her a Chicago
Film Critics Association nod for Most Promising Actress. Still in 1998, the
young thespian had a distinctly supporting turn in the horror comedy Revenant.

In 1999, Lyonne stepped into box office realm with a feature role as Jessica,
the sexually experienced girl, in the teen comedy hit American Pie. The role put
her on the radar of Gene Simmons, who placed her in the supporting role of
Christine in the Adam Rifkin-helmed Detroit Rock City (1999), which starred
Giuseppe Andrews , James DeBello and her lover, Edward Furlong. The same year,
she also played roles in Rat Girl, When Autumn Leaves, the comedy But I’m a
Cheerleader (as a young girl sent to a camp when her parents assume she is a
lesbian) and The Auteur Theory. In addition to having the female lead, Lyonne
also made her debut as an associate producer for the comedy film Freeway II:
Confessions of a Trickbaby (1999).

The demanding player kept on her hectic film schedule in the next years by
working with Diane Keaton in the comedy Plan B (2001), costarring opposite Jake
Busey and Crispin Glover in the adventure Fast Sofa (2001), reprising the part
of Jessica for the second installment American Pie 2 (2001), having feature
roles in the anticipated sequel to the 2000 Dimension Films’ blockbuster Scary
Movie, Scary Movie 2 (2001) and in the Toronto-screened The Grey Zone (2001,
starred David Arquette) as well as playing the supporting role of Darci in the
Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman vehicle Kate & Leopold (2001). Lyonne was also seen on
the small screen as Jeanne in the TV movie If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000)
and guest starring as Gillian in an episode of “Will & Grace” (2000).

Next up are roles in the drama film ZigZag (2002) with Wesley Snipes,
writer/director Adam Rifkin’s Night at the Golden Eagle (2002) opposite Donnie
Montemarano and Vinny Argiro, the Seth Green and Macaulay Culkin starring
vehicle Party Monster (2003) as a club kid named Brooke, and the comedy Die,
Mommie, Die! (2003) costarring with Charles Busch and ex-Beverly Hills, 90210
star Jason Priestley as the punishing daughter of a filmmaker who unexpectedly
dies. In 2004, Lyonne wrapped out three films: Paul Black’s America Brown, the
horror/thriller Madhouse (also starred Joshua Leonard and Jordan Ladd) and the
Wesley Snipes vehicle Blade: Trinity, where she appeared as one of the
Nightstalkers teaming up with Snipes to hunt down Dracula and his gang of undead
muggers. Her more recent film credits are the animated Robots (2005), voicing
the Loretta Geargrinder character, and the comedy/drama My Suicidal Sweetheart
(2005) written and directed by Michael Parness. The latter film cast Lyonne in
the starring role of Grace, opposite David Krumholtz as Max.

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